Poetry Friday--"Watermelons"

Another great small poem from the anthology Pocket Poems, Selected for a Journey by Paul B. Janeczko [YA 811.5 POC]:

Watermelons
by Charles Simic

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

Now, if that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will!

And speaking of melons, in our children's room, we have a book called Cool Melons--Turn to Frogs!: The Life and Poems of Issa by Matthew Gollub [J 895.6 GOL]. Issa, for those who don't recognize the name, was one of the great haiku poets of Japan.

David G. Lanoue has translated hundreds of Issa's haiku and has them indexed at his Issa Archive. Here's one of the melon haiku:

the melon cooling
two days now...
no one has come

If you're now feeling sad and lonely, head over to Check It Out, where you'll find the Poetry Friday Round-Up, and lots of poetry to cheer you up!


Photo by srqpix.